DirectX 11 Gets Official with ATi!!!

With Windows 7, DirectX 11 has arrived anyway but now, we have some cool graphics cards to support it too- with ATi's brand new 5-series GPUs!
These come with full DX11 support, and OpenGL 3.2.
Currently, the lowest end card, is the 5750,coming with 720 stream processors and 725 MHz core clock.Quiet good.
Next, comes the ATi 5770, a card that sounds[take note:sounds]awesome.It comes with 800 stream processors and 850 MHz clock, similar to the 4890.Ideal if you want to experience DX11 with good performance, but are on a budget.The problem with this card is-its bottlenecked by its 128-bit bandwidth.This makes it worse than even a 4870.Not a great performer for extreme gamers.

Then the 5850 comes, with a strange 1440 stream processors[thanks to being chopped out from the next card] and 725 MHz clock.Yet,it performs really well, probably faster than a GTX 285.Really recommendable card.

The awesome 5870 comes next, boasting of 1600 stream processors and a 850 MHz clock!Similar to the 4870 X2, but at least you can save on the power aspect![4870 X2-680W, 5870-500W!]

More recently though, a new addition has come into this family, the all mighty 5970!!!
This crazy card has nothing less than 3200 stream processors! Time being, its one of the most powerful cards around......needless to say!

iPod Nano Gen. 5...... Records Video!!!!!!!!

Yep.Apple have done it again.They have taken their ultra popular nano and.......OK, just read on!
The nano has undergone many cosmetic changes, remaining mostly rectangular with the exception of the 3rd gen, which was square!3rd gen onwards featured a 2-inch screen.
The new nano is out to change all that, lets start from the simple, and advance towards the remarkable....
-The nano now sports inbuilt microphone and speaker, so you can listen to beats without earphones [something 1) I used to miss on my iPod mini and 2) I now enjoy on my second gen. iPod Touch!]
-It comes loaded with a pedometer, which can count every step you walk and loaded Nike+iPod
-It also has FM radio....with live pause!
-It also comes with a bigger 2.2-inch screen, with 240 by 376 resolution and roughly 3:2 or 16:10 aspect ratio, compared to the 2-inch 240 by 320 4:3 aspect ratio screen the 3rd and 4th offered.
-it still offers 8 or 16 GB storage...
and finally......
The nano 5 looks a lot like the nano 4 except for being slightly wider[thanks to the new display] and now, at the back, bottom left, is- a video camera!!!!Yes!The new nano has a video camera!
The camera records at VGA, ie 640 by 480 resolution at 30 frames per second!
Despite all this, it is just quarter-inch thick and weighs 36 grams!!!
This is the 'biggest' nano to hit the market yet!

How To Interpret Nvidia Graphics Card Numbers

The kind of choice of graphics cards in the Geforce range is dazzling, yet it can get pretty confusing too!!!

Nvidia Geforce cards use a code based system of identification and demarcation.Put simply, they use four digit numbers for their GPUs and also add suffixes, now mostly starting with 'G'.What does all this mean?!Read on and find out!
Numerical codes
Entry Level GPUs

• _200 eg: 7200 GS, 6200 GS etc.
• _300 eg: 7300 GS, 9300 GS etc.
• _400 eg: 8400 GS, 9400 GT etc.

All cards with their second digit being any of the above three types represent Nvidia's affordable, discrete multimedia type of graphics cards.

For:

1. These are for those people who don't like integrated graphics chipsets which consume RAM and other resources from their computer.
2. People who want to watch movies in great quality without wanting overwhelming power.
3. An affordable discrete graphics solution.

These cards can play most games in great quality, but newer games will run at slightly reduced Frames Per Second[FPS] and lower graphics quality.

Mid Range GPUs

• _500 eg: 8500 GT, 9500 GT etc.
• _600 eg: 8600 GTS, 9600 GT etc.

For:

1. A discrete graphics solution that does more than just watching movies...
2. A slightly tight-on-budget gamer, since it will offer fantastic gameplay for most games and great performance for more modern games too.
3. Someone who wants to play games but doesn't want a wardrobe-sized cabinet with noisy fans and advanced power supply units.
4. An above average card for a good PC.

These are very convenient, since they offer awesome power at an affordable price.They offer very good gameplay too, even for new age games.All this and [usually] very reasonable power requirements.

Top-End GPUs....

• _800 eg: 9800 GX2, 8800 Ultra etc.

For:

1. The no-compromise gamer....
2. Professional video and photo editors, 3D rendering, whatever!!!
3. Perfect gameplay with mind-boggling graphic detail, high FPS and all
4. Future-proof gaming capabilities!!!

These cards can tackle games for years, eg: the Nvidia 6800 GT can still support games as advanced as Crysis, Race Driver: Grid and so on!

iPhone 3G's Successor arrives!

The title pretty much gives the new iPhone's name- intoducing the iPhone 3G 'S'!!!
I guess Apple must have read my previous posts about the iPhone 3G or something similar, 'cos they have FINALLY given it the few remaining features needed to make it a competitive smartphone in today's world.
The most important updated feature is the camera, which has been enlarged from 2 to 3 megapixels, which is minimum for photos of printable size with good clarity.Plus they have added video recording, which should be nothing to brag about, considering the fact that almost every phone posessing a camera usually allows you to take videos.The cool feature is that you can edit the videos you take........right on the iPhone!!!
It is also supposed to have a faster processor too, so playing games will be a breeze on the new device.Loading times should also be faster, for everything from web pages to games and other applications.
It now comes with a digital compass too!
These updates make the iPhone more reasonable to buy.
If only iPhones were available in GSM.......we could put any sim card we want!I guess thats wishing for too much[sadly!].

12.1 Snapper-cum-Caller!!!!

Yep, they have done it again.Sony Ericcsson have idou announced their latest phone-the 'Idou' which will come with a 12.1 Megapixel camera!!!
It will have a 3.5 inch touchscreen display.Not a lot else said about it, so I don't know much either....[sorry!]
Anyway, we'll see it when it comes!!!

Strange Complacency in the GPU World....?!

I have only finished my board exams recently, thus I have been rather silent for a while.Somehow, the GPU leaders Nvidia and ATi have been so too.Otherwise its nothing but hard competition between the two.Nvidia is bringing out some really big GPUs but ATi has already introduced their own DirectX 10.1 ready GPUs, while Nvidia is still sticking to DX 10?!?Mysterious..........


Under AMD's leadership, ATi GPUs have become much more popular, faster and affordable, all at the same time!Nvidia's latest GTX 295 graphics card comes with a crazy 1792 MB [896 x 2GPUs in one card,1.7GB] of pure graphics memory but it STILL uses GDDR3 speed to address all this memory.Comparatively, ATI has only got 512MB memory on their HD4870 graphics card, but it runs at a scorching GDDR5 speed, allowing it to reach teraflops!Moreover, it supports DX 10.1 which none of Nvidia's GPUs can.The 4870 supports OpenGL version 4.1 while the 295 supports only 2.1.Then again, all this for just 512MB graphics memory?That is REALLY upsetting isn't it?

ATi can sit back and relax for a while, since they only need worry about increasing their graphics memory but Nvidia has a lot to catch up on.

Once they do, ATi could have a lot to think about....

Nvidia's GTX Range Expanding!

Nvidia's Geforce GTX series has got some more to offer!
The new GTX 295 is a The GTX 295 is a really big GPU, considering the fact that it has two graphics processing cores on a singe graphics card!!!As I had earlier wished in one of my articles, dual core graphics cards are fast becoming a reality !This means that most of the constituents are also double.What I mean is- each core has 896MB of memory, so a single card holds 1792MB of solid Graphics memory!!!Like most Nvidia cards, it uses GDDR3.As usual,it supports directX 10.Nvidia's PhysX technology of course is present,so games should look stunning.Strangely, it supports only OpenGL 2.1, The GTX 275 itself supports 3.0, the ATi HD 4870 supports 4.1 ??!!
Other less powerful GPUs in the GTX range, apart from the first two GTX 260 and GTX 280 which started it all include:
GTX 285
Single core, powerful card.Has 1GB memory at GDDR3.Supports DX 10.
GTX 275.Again OpenGL 2.1!
Single core card.Has 896 MB memory at GDDR3.Supports DX10. OPENGL3.0?!?
Can't wait for the DX 10.1 ready cards to arrive!I'll keep everyone informed as much as I can!